Why do we need health screening procedures?
How will they help us?
Their are many questions about health screening procedures that can be asked in many different aspects for example a doctor would carry out health screening procedures. These would "usually involve tests or exams that catch diseases or conditions in their early stages so they're easier to treat." (http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_6329620_health-screening-procedures-fitness.html). Or for example what I am going to be talking about is personal trainers and why would they use different health screening procedures.
The 4 Health Screening Procedures I Will Talk About Are:
- Client Consultation Form
- Health Screening Questionnaire
- Questioning
- None-Verbal Communication
Client Consultation Form
As you can see here is a client consultation form that I have created for my clients as a personal trainer. Whenever you go to a spa or get a personal trainer etc you will receive a consultation form to fill in. You might think that this is quite boring and useless however, actually a consultation form is essentially important.
It is very important because it guarantees safety for you during your what ever treatment you will receive because a consultation form will tell your therapist/personal trainer etc of any medical needs that you might have.
If you don't fill out a consultation form and start doing exercise program with your personal trainer you could be in danger of many things because if for example you have a knee injury and you don't inform your personal trainer about this through a consultation form then you might do a exercise that will make your injury worse. However, if you fill one in then your personal trainer will be informed of all your needs and medical history as you can see in the consultation form that I have created.
Health Screening Questionnaire
After I have created the consultation forms I have chosen two people that are contrasting individuals and asked them if they could fill in my consultation form. Getting this information from them is essential before I can actually start any type of treatment with them. This is because a health screening questionnaire will allow me to find out a lot more about my clients and about their medical history if they have any injuries, allergies, infections, bruises, cuts etc the list goes on and on. Below you will see my health screening questionnaire filled in by my two contrasting individuals.
My First Individual John:
Here as you can see are the pages of the health screening questionnaire filled in by John. This information is very important to me if John is going to be my client because I will need to know if John has anything in his medical history that I need to be careful about.
Also this questionnaire tells me not only John's medical history but also what his aims and targets are and why did he come to a personal trainer in the first place etc.
If you read my first individuals filled in questionnaire you will see that John does't have any medical problems which means that I wouldn't have to worry about him a lot and about referring him to a physio or a doctor ect.
My First Individual John:
Here as you can see are the pages of the health screening questionnaire filled in by John. This information is very important to me if John is going to be my client because I will need to know if John has anything in his medical history that I need to be careful about.
Also this questionnaire tells me not only John's medical history but also what his aims and targets are and why did he come to a personal trainer in the first place etc.
If you read my first individuals filled in questionnaire you will see that John does't have any medical problems which means that I wouldn't have to worry about him a lot and about referring him to a physio or a doctor ect.
My Second Individual Elliot:
Here as you can see are the pages of the health screening questionnaire filled in by Elliot. This information is very important to me because as a personal trainer I will be able to create a suitable training program that will fit to Elliot's given information for example like he mentions in the medical history section he has back pains so I would try to avoid him lifting really heavy weight because it could damage his back even more.
If you read my second individuals questionnaire properly you will see that in the medical history part he has mentioned something about having an unknown pain in the chest and in the upper back. When looking at this information I should straight away write a note besides it to be referred to a doctor or physio ect. Referring your clients is a really important thing to do because your client might not be experienced in knowing what actually is wrong with them and just leave it however, if they leave it like it is it might get worse and lead to serious injury during the training sessions. That is why you as a personal trainer should refer your client to a suitable place where they will be able to get this checked up and get the problem solved. Usually when you refer a client you should go back into their contacts and see what GP/Hospital do they go to and call up the hospital ask for some of your clients history to have a better understanding of your clients problem.
Questioning
Questioning is another health screening procedure that personal trainers, doctors and others use to find out a bit more extra information about their clients. This is a really easy and useful health screening procedure to use because you can do it even while your client is filling in the questionnaire. For example while your client is filling in the questionnaire you can ask questions that will let you see what your client is like and ask them questions such as...
- Have you got any hobbies?
- Do you exercise a lot?
- Do you go to any sports clubs or a gym?
- Do you like exercising?
- Do you play or take part in any sports at the moment?
- Do you tend to keep a healthy diet or eat fast food a lot?
- What's the last injury you have had and how did it happen?
There are many many other questions that you can ask to find out more information about your client. Not only you find out more about your client but you already start to build a friendly relationship with your client to make them feel more comfortable with you.
Also while you are questioning your client you should have a note pad so that when your client says something that could be useful you can write it down straight away.
Also when questioning you should think about questions that you will ask if they will be closed or open questions because if for example you want to know more about something your not going to ask a closed question because the answer will either be 'yes' 'no'. Instead to find out more and allow your client to speak more about something you should ask them a open question that will almost create a conversation between you and your client.
Also when questioning you should think about questions that you will ask if they will be closed or open questions because if for example you want to know more about something your not going to ask a closed question because the answer will either be 'yes' 'no'. Instead to find out more and allow your client to speak more about something you should ask them a open question that will almost create a conversation between you and your client.
None-Verbal Communication
None-verbal communication is another health screening procedure that all personal trainers will look at because it allows them to see better who they will be training. None-verbal communication is in other words body language. If you are a personal trainer you wouldn't want to train a person who will be rude or a person that seems like they don't want to be there in the first place because it can be very demotivating. Instead we would like to train a person who is motivated and happy.
As you can see here is one of my clients John. By looking at his body language I can see that he is quite happy and he looks motivated about having a personal trainer!
As you can see in this image this person doesn't look very motivated but instead he looks quite not interested and from looking at the way he is leaning back shows me that he is not too bothered.
As you can see here is one of my clients John. By looking at his body language I can see that he is quite happy and he looks motivated about having a personal trainer!
As you can see in this image this person doesn't look very motivated but instead he looks quite not interested and from looking at the way he is leaning back shows me that he is not too bothered.
By looking at this women here we can see that she doesn't look too interested and she looks bored. This would show us straight away that one of the aim of the personal trainer is to get her motivated first so that she puts effort into the exercises given to be able to make her sessions effective.
There are many other emotions we can see by body language. Looking at body language is important because it allows you too see who your going to be training what you think they are going to be.
There are many other emotions we can see by body language. Looking at body language is important because it allows you too see who your going to be training what you think they are going to be.
If you find your self in a situation where you can see that your client is starting to act bored or not interested you should make the procedures more interactive and for example take them for a walk around the gym while asking them questions etc. This will wake them up more instead of being in a office filling in a questionnaire which might seem quite boring after some time.